VW relies on bicycles

VW relies on bicycles

Volkswagen Financial Services (VWFS) and Pon Holdings (Pon) are intensifying their partnership in company bike leasing. The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for this strategic alliance was signed recently at the IAA Mobility in Munich. The goal is to expand together in the growing bicycle and e-bike leasing business in Europe and the USA. “Our partnership with Pon is another important step in our development into a broad-based mobility service provider and thus supports the strategic goals of the Volkswagen Group,” said Christian Dahlheim, CEO of Volkswagen Financial Services AG, at the IAA. There is great potential in bicycle leasing as an additional profit pool that perfectly complements the current mobility portfolio of VW FS. “We are systematically expanding our range of services for commercial customers and supporting our long-term growth in the European fleet business,” says Dahlheim.

Janus Smalbraak, CEO of Pon Holdings, added: "The company bike meets a clear need for employees, employers and governments, which has allowed us to grow the business so quickly over the last five years. The e-bike plays a crucial role in the future of commuting and the leasing option offers employees - enabled by their employers - much wider accessibility." As part of Pon.Bike, BMS is Europe's leading bicycle leasing company and operates in six countries (Germany, Netherlands, Austria, Belgium, Sweden and recently also USA). The company currently provides company bicycles to over 600,000 employees in 65,000 companies - from large corporations to SMEs. 90 percent of leased bicycles are electric and are delivered and serviced through a network of 8,000 bicycle dealers. The BMS brands are BusinessBike, Lease a Bike and B2Bike. In Germany, VWFS and BMS have been working together successfully for more than three years. Germany is a leader in company bicycle leasing, where it has firmly established itself as a successful model for motivating employees. The European market potential for leasing company bicycles is estimated at 10 billion euros by 2028. "There are clear parallels to the automobile industry in the development of the bicycle industry. The higher the investment in a bicycle, the more relevant financial services are to boost and stabilize sales for manufacturers," explains Dahlheim.